• The Astros’ Chris Johnson is on Twitter (@CJAstros23). He joins Hunter Pence (@hunterpence9) and Ryan Rowland-Smith (@hyphen18) as the only members of the 40-man roster tweeting. Unless Wandy Rodriguez is running the account of @oldhossradbourn from the other side of the grave.

• While it can be argued that it eventually led to a bad contract for the declining Carlos Lee, every day, the Astros’ loss in the Carlos Beltran sweepstakes looks better. He’s hurt again. (Adam Rubin, ESPN New York)

• Major League Baseball announced its new hires in the New York offices with former Dodgers assistant GM Kim Ng and former Diamondbacks assistant GM joining Joe Torre’s staff in baseball operations. (MLB release) The hires followed the dismissal of vice president of umpiring Mike Port, vice president of operations and administration Ed Burns and senior specialist of on-field operations Darryl Hamilton. (AP)

• As a bonus, this last one is almost a week old, but I just found it, so to me it’s hot off the virtual press. It’s about ESPN.com writer Jim Caple going to umpiring school and coming away with a new appreciation.